FEATURED BOARD MEMBERS OF THE WOMEN'S HEALTH ISSUE
His Excellency Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete the former President of the United Republic of Tanzania served as the co-chair of the United Nations Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health with former Canadian Prime Minister Harper. In his more than 30 years of public service, President Kikwete served in different party, military, and government positions. He joined the Cabinet in 1988 and he held several ministerial portfolios including Minister for Finance, Minister for Water, Energy and Mineral Resources, and Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck is the Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership. RBM is a global partnership founded in 1998 by WHO, UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Coll-Seck was Minister of Health of the Republic of Senegal. She also served as Director at the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), leading the Department of Policy, Strategy, and Research and subsequently the Department of Country and Regional Support. Dr. Coll-Seck has served for nearly 20 years as a specialist in infectious diseases in leading hospitals in Dakar, Senegal, and Lyon, France.
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen is CEO and owner of Vestergaard Frandsen, a European company focused on achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. The company operates under its own “Humanitarian Entrepreneurship” business model that has turned corporate social responsibility into its core business of creating life-saving products for the developing world. In 2009 Mikkel was appointed an economic advisor to the prime minister of his native Denmark. Vestergaard Frandsen received the 2010 Financial Times Justmeans Social Innovation Award for Most Innovative Small For-Profit Company. In 2010 Mikkel was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
So why should we feature men? The simple answer is that men need to be part of the solution for international women’s health issues. As many of the authors in this issue point out: investing in women pays dividends. Improved women’s health not only has direct benefits, but also indirect benefits, for child health and economic development. In many parts of the world, women cannot be champions of their own health rights, therefore, it is critical that men advocate for their mothers, sisters and daughters. The men featured in this publication are not only champions in their own right, they also symbolize the need for all men to stand up to improve the quality of women’s health around the world.
President Kikwete and Prime Minister Harper, together, co-Chair the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health. This group is tasked with developing a framework to monitor global commitments for maternal, newborn, and child health and ensure that committed resources save as many lives as possible. Developing mechanisms to ensure that funding has maximal on the ground impact is critical, particularly in uncertain economic times.
Donor agencies are also playing important roles. This issue highlights Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), for the work being done on President Obama’s Global Health Initiative to empower women. This effort is driving forward innovative approaches to health care. We also call attention to Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) because of their long standing commitment to the NGOs around the world that implement programs on women’s health. Therefore, President Obama and Prime Minister Harper become the men in these countries who are working to advance women’s health, not only for women in of their own countries, but also the women of other countries who receive funding from the donor agencies (CIDA and USAID).
Issues of women’s health are global in scope. The development of lasting partnerships between donors, governments and health care delivery systems is crucial to achieving success. Thus the role of the United Nations and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cannot be understated. His “Global Strategy on Women and Children’s Health,” for which countries, foundations, and private corporations have pledged $40 billion dollars, is rapidly mobilizing action to improve the health of women around the world. This massive collaborative effort gives great hope to the global health community.
A woman’s health is important to not only herself, but to her children, her community and global well-being. Women’s health is essential to the prosperity of us all. The past decade has seen heightened attention to the issues being addressed in this publication. However, in order for measurable progress to be achieved, discussions, pledges and strategies need to become concrete actions.
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